John Hemming's Web Log

Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many ministerial red boxes his Department and its predecessor bought in each of the last five years; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were; and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: The number of Ministers red boxes ordered by BERR and its predecessor over the previous five years were as follows: Number Cost (£) 2002-03 0 — 2003-04 0 — 2004-05 1 604.50 2005-06 9 749 each 2006-07 8 749 each Banner Business Supplies are the sole supplier of Ministers boxes and are an Office of Government Commerce (OGC) approved supplier. Gareth Thomas (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for International Development)

Children, Schools and Families: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many ministerial red boxes his Department and its predecessor bought in each of the last five years; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were; and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: Red boxes are ordered as and when they are needed from the Department's stationery supplier, Business Banner Supplies. Ministerial boxes are used by successive Ministers over many years. Kevin Brennan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and Families

Children, Schools and Families: Adoption: Standards Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effect of the targets on adoption on the numbers of children remaining with their birth families. A: A national adoption target was announced in 2000 to increase the number of adoptions of looked after children by 40 per cent. by the year ending March 2005, and to exceed this by achieving, if possible, a 50 per cent. increase by the end of March 2006. The target related to children who were already looked after. The Department for Children, Schools and Families collects statistics on the number of adoptions of Looked After Children in England. Relevant information is published in the document "Children Looked After By Local Authorities Year Ending March 2006" which is available at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000721/index.shtml. Kevin Brennan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and...

The first event for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil , which I chair, was held on 24th July and David Strahan of The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre gave the major presentation with Chris Skrebowski of The Energy Institute and myself answering questions. This was an informative event with about 50 members of the public present. The objective of the APPG is to raise the debate about Peak Oil. It was, therefore, useful that The Government's Chief Scientist Sir David King has submitted his view and Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency has also agreed to do a presentation and answer questions. It is the process of answering questions that hopefully will tease out the differences in assumptions. The world is in a geological sense a defined entity, but there is some uncertainty about exactly what the definitiion is. Similarly the rules of physics are a reasonable stable set of rules (at least at the macroscopic level at which energy policy sits). It should, t...

I agreed to response to questions from readers of "Community Care". Sadly, they have decided to edit out much of my answers. Hence I post them here. =================================================================== I suggested to Community Care that rather than me simply write an opinion piece that I should offer to answer questions raised by those people who work in Children’s Social Services. I am making relatively fundamental criticisms of the system and, therefore, it is my responsibility to justify and evidence the case being put forward. One point to emphasise, however, is that in all professions there are people who are better and those that are worse. One difficulty I have identified is that of dealing with bad behaviour from individual practitioners or indeed from management or politicians. I am aware of a number of individual situations where complaints from individual staff have resulted in false allegations being made against the staff complaining. This ma...

This story (link) is about a toddler sadly being drowned in a domestic swimming pool. A similar situation where a toddler died caused the parents' other children to be taken into care. What happens when the same thing happens with a local authority "in loco parentis". We also have a story about children being abused in foster care in Coventry. I am aware of three deaths this year in foster care where further independent* investigation should occur: Camden, Portsmouth, Trafford. I know that the local safeguarding childrens committee should investigate, but this is the people responsible for the problems investigating themselves. *independent - meaning financially independent of the system.

Legally popping a bottle of vegetable oil requires that a duty of 27p is paid. However, the HMRC recently agreed a de-minimis limit which basically means that people who use under 2,500 litres of vegetable oil a year don't have to pay the duty. That means that people who pop a bottle of rape seed oil in their [diesel] tank bought in the supermarket are no longer breaking the law. Even if you convert entirely to vege oil and run at about 20,000 miles a year you now have duty free driving.

One effect of the secrecy of the family courts is that it has prevented the voice of children being held in care being heard. Generally action has only been taken about maltreatment of children in care when they hit adulthood. Clayton v Clayton does have the effect of removing any block on children that are in care talking about the difficulties they face.

I did vote for the Smoking Ban and continue to think it was the right thing to do although we should have also had the option of Smoking Rooms - rather than the silly things that are now happening with outdoor smoking rooms. However, sadky today we heard of the the first death that can be linked to the smoking ban of someone shot for asking someone else to stop smoking. Similarly I heard today of someone seen driving whilst smoking three cigarettes. Sounds quite dangerous and also linked to the smoking ban.

If the recent floods involve an insurance payout of £1bn and using figures from 2005 net property premiums are 8.7bn with a payout of 7.7bn then one would expect that this flood in isolation will put premiums up by about 15%. With the previous floods and what may happen later we could see an increase in premiums of 40% or more.

Community Care is the house magazine for Social Work. They suggested I wrote an opinion piece, my alternative proposal was to answer the questions of their readers. The link is part of the answer. I am expecting them to put up more of an answer later. Interestingly a number of social workers spoke out in support of my arguments. I know that many people privately agree, but I was quite pleased to find some people working in social work who confirm publicly what I say.

Powys UA, Welshpool Gungrog LD F Jump 234 (41.0 -30.2), Ind 143 (25.1 +25.1), Ind 98 (17.2 +17.2), Con 95 (16.7 -12.1). Majority 91. Turnout 30%. LD hold. Last fought 2004.

Two interchanges from yesterday John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): The Government have caused a number of problems by conflating section 31 and section 20, but will they commit to listening to the voices of children who say that they want to leave care and return to their parents? I know of cases where children have run away from care to go back to their parents, only to be returned time and again. Will the Government start listening to the voices of children who want to return to their parents? Kevin Brennan: It is the principle the Government follow that wherever possible children should remain with their birth family. It is absolutely legitimate to make criticisms and to look into the issues raised by children in care and adoption, but what is not legitimate is—sometimes in pursuit of a headline in a popular newspaper—to accuse the Government, professionals in the social care sector, local authorities, and indeed the courts, of not trying to act in the best interests of child...

Justice: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many ministerial red boxes the Department bought in each of the last five years; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were; and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: Red boxes are used by successive Ministers over a number of years. The specific information requested for the last five years could be provided only at disproportionate cost as the information is not recorded centrally. Red boxes are ordered via the Department's stationery contract with Banner Business Supplies Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice)

Innovation, Universities and Skills: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many ministerial red boxes the Department has bought since establishment; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were; and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: None. David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills)

The link is to Sue's story in the Daily Mail. Another story today is about how England's youth is the worst behaved in Europe. So we have more state intervention in the Family and our youth are the worst behaved. There is evidence that these two aspects are linked.

The entertaining thing about the question about the cost of red boxes it it demonstrates whether or not individual departments are willing to answer slightly embarrassing questions. Often Special Advisors prevent questions being answered because they appear slightly embarrassing. The embarrassing part of this is that the boxes are expensive and often not bought through a tendering process. Once we have responses from all of the departments I will collate them to find out how good each department is at answering the question.

Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Ministerial red boxes his Department bought in each of the last five years; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were: and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: The information requested by the hon. Member is only available for years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Number of boxes Total value (£) 2004 0 0 2005 (1)8 3,600 2006 (2)6 2,900 2007 1 490 (1 )Two separate orders (2) Three separate orders The requirements for these boxes are infrequent and are satisfied through single source procurement strategy with Barrow and Gale. There is no current long-term contract in place. During 2004 the opportunity was taken to market test the prices and those provided by Barrow and Gale were found to provide the best value on price and quality. Jim Murphy (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

Wales: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many ministerial red boxes his Department bought in each of the last five years; what the cost of each was; who the suppliers were; and what tendering process was used in selecting them. A: Ministerial boxes are used by successive Ministers over many years. No new boxes have been ordered in the last five years. Any new ones would be ordered through contracts put in place by the Ministry of Justice Peter Hain (Secretary of State, Wales Office)

One of the problems faced by people in the floods is an absence of water and electricity. Those depending upon services for their lives are particularly at risk. We have looked at this in Birmingham Emergency Planning and are happy to help, but have not been contacted. The government has said they are doing this contingency planning, but if they are then they should have contacted Birmingham.